Buying Tenant Occupied Rental Properties

As real estate investors, opening up the Wall Street Journal can sometimes cause a panic attack. But in June 2015, this article came out giving most investors a sigh of relief and even a tingle down their leg. Spoiler Alert: You’re going to make good money for a number of years to come if you play the market smart. http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-housing-crisis-looms-as-fewer-renters-can-afford-to-own-1433698639 Here’s a few bullet points if you don’t have time to read the entire article (but please read it eventually…) The U.S. homeownership rate is below where it stood 20 years ago when President Bill Clinton launched a national campaign to encourage Americans to buy homes. Conventional wisdom says the rate, at 63.7%, is leveling off to where it was for decades before the housing-market peak. The declines reflect a surge of new renter households, which is boosting rents. Together with tougher mortgage-qualification rules, this will leave households stuck between homes they […]

Today’s WSJ published an article about the US Housing Market recovery diverging into two recoveries. Reminds me of the Dickens classic a bit…. Essentially, lower priced inventories are vanishing fast while inventory on the higher end piles up. While on the surface this might seem like “Economics 101” (and it does reflect some of that light) there is more to the story, especially as it relates to your rental portfolio positions and future purchases. WSJ Housing Market Takes on Split Levels 030816. Here’s some of the highlights from the article: On the low end, after a slow recovery from the housing bust, first-time buyers are finally returning to the market, bolstered by still-cheap mortgages. But after years of little new construction, inventory is still tight. High-end buyers, meanwhile, are more sensitive to the stock market’s struggles this year. So…..how does this information impact your rental […]

If you own or are considering owning high end apartments as rental properties, do yourself a favor and check out this article from the WSJ. When a reporter uses vocabulary including “rough conditions” and “slash rents” and “deep concessions” and “glut of supply” ALL in the same sentence, that’s a not-so-subtle hint of the valuable information in the news article. Luxury Apartment Boom Looks Set to Fizzle in 2017 – WSJ Certainly, every market segment from first-time renters to move-up renters to empty-nesters has an ebb and flow to it. It’s capitalism and the forces Adam Smith described centuries ago. What you do with this information is the critical point and take away. Depending on your current interests, this could also be a buying opportunity for some savvy investors to pick up units from distressed landlords. As always, here’s to your pursuit of Financial Freedom!

The Backstory to Now…. Clients who hire me to coach them before and during their first investment property transaction ask how and when and where all the money came from Wall Street to buy so many thousands of rental homes. Answering them takes patience and detailed explanations as this is the first time in history such a platform of investment has occurred on such a massive scale. This WSJ article does a solid job of discussing the backstory, the history, and leads with some hints about where the industry of property leasing is headed. After all, big investors have plopped $40,000,000,000 into buying 200,000 houses as rentals. Some questions for you to ponder as you read the article: As a small, private investor: How can you compete with these powerhouse-landlords on pricing, marketing, and profit margins? As a property manager: What lessons can you take away from the article on […]